Castles in the Sky Page #3

aside from Hitler announcing

conscription,

secretly practising war manoeuvres

and building aeroplanes.

Or perhaps the lightness of your mood

is related to some success

by your little committee?

We're making progress.

With the death ray?

The system we're developing may

help us build a defence that...

Hitler will crush.

Yes, you're right.

You're absolutely right.

Good day, Professor.

Certainly not, Professor.

Ooh, well, in that case,

it's a direct order.

Tell me who Tizard's committee

have met. That's classified.

I'm sorry.

I apologise for my manner.

We're all working in very

difficult circumstances.

I feel... May I trouble

you for a glass of water?

Won't be a moment.

I'm afraid our hands are tied.

How so?

The secret nature of the project

does prevent us

from taking out an advertisement

in the Times.

Well, you better tell Mr Tizard

that we're going to need more time.

There's only two of us here.

Close the door.

You detected a plane a few

hundred yards away in a field -

that won't protect Britain.

We need to think bigger.

I'm going to make some calls

to Oxford and Cambridge,

see who we can drum up.

No, I'd like to use men

from the weather lab.

My dear man,

if we want this to work,

we require the very best physicists

and mathematicians and we find those

gentlemen not at the weather lab

but at our oldest universities.

You don't think

weathermen are good enough

because they don't wear

the right tie and all that?

Some of your lot don't wear

ties at all, do they?

Look, your little weathermen

friends are all well and good,

and I'm sure they're perfectly

harmless, but they simply

do not have the expertise with

this particular technology.

Our best professors do.

They'll also do what they're told.

Really?

Cavendish. Shall we?

Yes, er, Cambridge 2443, please.

Cavendish Laboratory,

Cambridge University.

They'll do what they're told?

Is that Sir James Thomson?

Yes, sorry to bother you, sir.

I'm calling from the Post Office.

Just a wee check on the line.

Do you happen to have a container

of water near your telephone?

A sink perhaps or maybe a bucket?

A fish-tank!

Yes, that will suffice. Could you

please pop your telephone into it?

Yes, into the fish tank.

It's the only way we can fully

ensure that your equipment

is compatible with the new system.

That's excellent, sir.

But most folk call me Taffy.

I don't know why,

Swansea's miles away

from the River Taff.

I was born in Cockett, you see.

Perhaps as well they call me

Taffy, eh?

I graduated from Swansea University,

First Class Honours,

Msc the year after that

and completed my doctorate

at King's College,

and I've been at the station

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